Sheepish Sprint Nextel admits “talking up” Evo

Sprint Nextel has admitted that it had inadvertently overstated the launch day sales of the much anticipated Evo 4G.

The Evo is seen as a serious competitor to Apple’siPhone 4 and Jobs’ Mob is widely seen as the only outfit in the industry who is allowed to be overly optimistic.

Sprint said the total number of HTC Evo 4G devices sold on the launch day was about the same as the Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices added together for the first three days on the market combined. So not bad.

However, Sprint originally reported that the total number of HTC Evo 4G devices sold on launch day was three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days. We can see how you got a bit confused that is an odd way of doing sums. They clearly forgot to divide by their shoe size.

BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk reckoned Evo sales in the first weekend were probably about 150,000 instead of the 250,000 to 300,000.

To make matters worse, the Evo is in short supply so sales are unlikely to rise much further.

Sprint is banking on the EVO to stem customer losses and give it a head start in selling 4G services. The Evo is being seen as the only serious single smartphone that can take on Apple.